Swinney defends Gray Japan trip as opposition quiz FM on record cancer delays
At First Minister's Questions on Thursday, Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay claimed the SNP were presiding over a 'cancer care crisis".
Earlier this week, Public Health Scotland published data showing that just 68.9% of patients with an 'urgent suspicion' of cancer were seen within the 62-day target, in the first three months of 2025.
This was the worst performance since records began, and well below the pre-pandemic figure of 83.7% for the same quarter in 2019.
The Scottish Government's target is for 95% of patients to start treatment within 62 days of referral.
Publication of the new figures coincided with a trade visit to Japan by Health Secretary Neil Gray, who was sent to the Osaka Expo by Mr Swinney to promote Scotland's life sciences and digital health sectors.
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Speaking in Holyrood, Mr Findlay said: 'If Neil Gray really thinks his time is better spent in Japan than in Scotland during an NHS crisis, then he shouldn't be Health Secretary.'
The Scottish Tory leader branded the statistics 'bleak' and accused the SNP of a 'culture of failure' that was putting lives at risk.
'There is a cancer care crisis but [Neil Gray] took taxpayer-funded limos to the pub and the football, and then he decided to go to Japan,' he said. 'What has the Health Secretary done to give John Swinney any confidence that he can bring down cancer waiting times?'
The Scottish Government's target is for 95% of patients to start treatment within 62 days of referral. (Image: Jane Barlow/PA) Mr Swinney acknowledged that the failure to meet the 62-day standard for so many patients was 'not acceptable', but pointed to 'improvements in capacity' and said the median time from diagnosis to treatment was now just three days.
He also told MSPs that NHS Lanarkshire had met both the 31-day and 62-day targets, and said other health boards were being urged to adopt its model of care.
'What we are ensuring is the learning from NHS Lanarkshire is being applied in other boards around the country to ensure the performance is achieved,' he said.
Defending Mr Gray's trip, Mr Swinney told MSPs: 'The Health Secretary is in Japan at my request, at my approval, to ensure that Scotland's life sciences sector is able to be promoted to an international audience.'
He insisted that the Scottish Government was 'treating more patients with cancer on time, within both standards, compared to the same quarter six years ago, pre-pandemic', and was investing record sums in NHS services.
However, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the SNP was failing across the board and leaving Scots to 'pay the price'.
'This is a failing First Minister in a failing SNP Government,' he said. 'Waiting lists are up, thousands more Scots are forced to go private, and cancer waiting times are the worst they have ever been.'
Mr Sarwar said people were being let down on housing, delayed discharges and access to healthcare, citing one constituent who waited 76 weeks for hip and knee surgery, and another who had to pay £4,500 for cataract treatment to avoid going blind.
He said Mr Swinney had 'taken personal responsibility for tackling the crisis in Scotland's NHS and now things are getting worse'.
Mr Swinney said his government had provided 'a record financial settlement for the NHS' and pointed to the 105,500 additional appointments delivered in the first year of his term.
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Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said patients facing an urgent suspicion of cancer 'deserve to know they've got the best chance of survival — but under this SNP Government, that is just not happening'.
He also criticised the slow pace of rolling out targeted lung cancer screening in Scotland, despite a UK-wide recommendation from the National Screening Committee three years ago.
Mr Swinney said he would examine the issue and insisted early detection remained a priority.
Earlier this week, a British Medical Association survey suggested 29% of Scots had turned to private healthcare in the past two years. That prompted BMA Scotland chair Dr Iain Kennedy to say the NHS was 'dying before our eyes'.
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